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Lampitt Statement on Gov’s Conditional Veto of Bill to Combat Gender Pay Gap

(TRENTON) – Assembly Women and Children Committee Chair Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden/Burlington) issued the following statement Tuesday on Gov. Christie’s conditional veto of legislation she sponsored to combat gender pay inequities in the workplace.

The bill (A-2750) would have modified current law, including the Law Against Discrimination (LAD), to strengthen protections against employment discrimination and promote equal pay for women.


“I was disheartened to find out that Governor Christie decided to conditionally veto my bill S992/A2750. This bill would have taken necessary strides to close the gender wage gap and put into place critical protections to ensure that women have legal recourse against discriminatory pay practices.
“Governor Christie has repeatedly vetoed legislation to end wage discrimination in the workplace and today’s conditional veto is more of the same. We should be doing more to support the working women of New Jersey, not treating them as second class citizens.
“The Governor often harangues about his support for equal pay but he has demonstrated through his actions that his advocacy for pay equity is only propped up by his words. It is time that Governor Christie realizes that he cannot both support equal pay and veto legislation giving women the tools to remedy wage discrimination.
“Women deserve to be paid commensurate to their qualifications, yet women in New Jersey are still only paid 79 cents for every dollar a man makes for similar work. For women of color, their wages suffer even more disproportionately, with African American women making 64 cents to a man’s dollar and Hispanic and Latina women making 54 cents to a man’s dollar.
“It is shameful that in 2016 women still have to worry about wage equality. Senator Weinberg and I will continue to fight for the women of our state and to put an end to gender-based pay discrimination. We will not stop fighting to close the wage gap until a dollar equals a dollar, regardless of a person’s gender and we will hold the Governor accountable for his inaction.”